"Your comments and interpretation of the charts of Gold & Silver are followed by the majority of readers and are helpful. But you do not appear to have mentioned the manipulation of the silver & gold market by JP Morgan and others. Do you not feel this matter is of significance?

"If we trade these commodities surely we should take account of this manipulation?"

David Fuller's view I thought that I had addressed this subject sufficiently on Friday in my one Email of the day, but apparently not given another flurry of emails, of which I will post one.

Gold bug sites, led by GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee - you can buy their T-shirt) certainly feel that they have a 'smoking gun' with this issue which has occupied millions of column inches of mostly repetitious conjecture regarding price manipulation over at least two decades. In the 'no smoke without fire' category, this has finally led to a CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission) hearing which is currently underway. You can read all about it, if inclined, on this link to the City Index site - a spread-bet firm with which I no longer trade.

My view on market manipulation, which I will define in its broadest sense - from cheerleading to outright fraud - is that it has always existed and will continue to occur, to a greater or lesser degree. At minimum, it is part of 'market noise', and another good reason why market timers use price charts.